Robert Cohen - Theatre, Brief Version-McGraw-Hill Education (2016)

102 Chapter 5 Designers and Technicians
Photo Essay: Scene Designer Scott Pask
Scott Pask is one of the leading scenic
designers in America today. His
outstanding design record on and off
Broadway, in London, and in regional
American theatre, including over 40
productions on Broadway, has won him
three Tony Awards (for The Book of
Mormon, The Pillowman, and The
Coast of Utopia trilogy) plus stellar
Broadway productions including Something
Rotten, Finding Neverland, It’s
Only a Play, Airline Highway, Pippin,
Pal Joey, Casa Valentina, Hair, Les
Liaisons Dangereuses, Macbeth, Nine,
La Cage Aux Folles, Speed the Plow,
Pal Joey, and Promises, Promises.
This is how Scott answered some
of my questions:
1. Scott Pask at his design table in his studio overlooking
New York’s Union Square. © Robert Cohen
2. Pask studies his model for the 2012 production of
Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along, which
he is designing for the Cincinnati Playhouse in
the Park. © Robert Cohen
1.
2.
RC: Why did you head into design?
SP: I first trained as an architect, but
while pursuing that education, I
started thinking about narrative
structure and remembering how
much I was intrigued with theatre.
So I decided to take an elective
course at the music theater
department at the university, and I
loved it. Then I trained in Italy for a
semester, studying the architecture
and how the Baroque and
Renaissance architects explored
fluidity and space, and how they
manipulated the space to make it
more dramatic. That was a huge
revelation. So when I finished my
degree in architecture I knew what
I wanted to do—come to New York
and work in theatre design.
I began working with people
who were creating performance
art projects downtown and in
experimental dance companies.
Then I interned on a film and
afterward did quite a bit of art
direction. But as the films were
getting bigger and the schedules
were getting longer (and I was
getting a little older, having been in
New York for five years), I realized
I had to move with that trajectory
in mind if I was going to study
theater—and that’s when I decided
to go to Yale. A kind of “now or
never” moment.